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The kids get their uniforms from an official Majestic dealer. Trust me, my son works there. They're good to go.
As for attaining the effect I was looking for by dressing in different colors, the point was to lighten up the stiff collars of some of my fellow umpires. This is Little League, and regular season game at that. Sure we had a pretty big crowd, and an MiLB mascot on hand, but they didn't come to see us.
That picture was taken by one of a bunch of folks who wanted to get a shot this. Umpiring, at my field, has been made a "cool" thing to do because of the culture we've developed at our park. I've got 30+ kids who work for me as Junior umpires every year, and I usually have a waiting list. A WAITING LIST FOR UMPIRES! I put three man crews on every game, and turn away volunteers most every night. I also have WR guys come out to specifically work with my kids. Like those guys in the picture.
As for credibility, I guess that's subjective. But some of the kids that come out of my program get asked to do some pretty high level (for LL) games. I know that our program as the respect of the folks up at WR. They know we turn out pretty good umpires. The managers and coaches for this particular game knew all these umpires, and their credentials. Half are WR instructors, all have been to the one week, a couple have TV games, etc. Trust me, that's a good crew, and there are rarely any complaints about my umpires.
I get that doing this wouldn't work in most places. It does in mine though.
How many 15 year olds have you taught to umpire well enough to work Section championship plates? I've had several, and those are my credentials.
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